Bookmakers: have been involved in a number of sabotage incidents

  PICTURE: Mark Cranham  

Robbers sabotage cars of on-course bookmakers

ON-COURSE bookmakers are being targeted by robbers who follow them from the track having earlier tampered with a tyre on their vehicle.

In the latest of a recent spate of incidents, a well-known layer, who has asked not to be named, was last week forced to stop on the hard-shoulder of the M4 motorway by a puncture shortly after leaving Newbury, and within minutes of raising the alarm, a Mercedes that had pulled up nearby was the subject of a high-speed police chase.

The bookmaker's fears were later confirmed on finding one of the tyres had been deliberately slit.

National Association of Bookmakers chairman, Keith Johnson, said: "In the last six weeks there have been probably four incidents that involved punctures or flat tyres so it seems to be the modus operandi for what they are trying at the moment, possibly on the basis that if people are changing wheels and distracted, they might be able to get away with some of the gear."

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